DARPA Robotics Challenge

The DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) was a prize competition funded by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Held from 2012 to 2015, it aimed to develop semi-autonomous ground robots that could do "complex tasks in dangerous, degraded, human-engineered environments.

If we can get there, then we think that we have good reason to believe that some of these teams with continued persistence for another year will actually be able to demonstrate robots that show the utility that these things might have in a real disaster scenario.

So, what we do is we wait for technology to be almost ready for something big to happen, and then we add a focused effort to catalyze the something.

But we provide the impetus, the extra push the technology needs to do that.The Robotics Challenge will focus on disaster or emergency-response scenarios.

Tracks B and C will go through the Virtual Robotics Challenge (VRC), after which successful teams may receive funding for subsequent stages.

[9] The signup site for Tracks C and D (no funding) shows illustrations of robots with most largely conforming to humanoid layouts (bipedal with two arms).

DARPA will provide to some participants "a robotic hardware platform with arms, legs, torso and head.

Twenty-five of the top robotics organizations in the world gathered to compete for $3.5 million in prizes as they attempted a simulated disaster-response course.

First place went to Team KAIST with their DRC-Hubo robot and a winning time of 44 minutes and 28 seconds.

Second place went to IHMC for Running Man, and third to Tartan Rescue of CMU NREC for Chimp.